Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
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Local adaptations in populations of rock–dwelling haplochromines (Pisces:Cichlidae) from southern Lake Victoria

N. Bouton

N. Bouton

Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden, POBox 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, UniversityThe Netherlands ()

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,
F. Witte

F. Witte

Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden, POBox 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, UniversityThe Netherlands ()

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,
J. J. M. van Alphen

J. J. M. van Alphen

Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden, POBox 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, UniversityThe Netherlands ()

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,
A. Schenk

A. Schenk

Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden, POBox 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, UniversityThe Netherlands ()

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and
O. Seehausen

O. Seehausen

Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden, POBox 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, UniversityThe Netherlands ()

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Published:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1999.0645

    The radiation of cichlid fishes in the African great lakes is often described as adaptive, because, at a superficial level, cichlid fishes seem adapted to the ecological niches they occupy. However, adaptedness has rarely been studied. We've investigated to what extent island populations of three species of the rock–dwelling genus Neochromis, endemic to Lake Victoria, are adapted anatomically to exploit locally abundant resources. Specifically, we asked whether different resource environments were reflected in differences in the feeding apparatus, both within species and between species. In populations of two specialized biters, the algae scrapers N. rufocaudalis and N. omnicaeruleus, the biting force of the lower jaw increased with increasing amount of items that require biting in the diet. N. greenwoodi is a less specialized biter; we found differences between two populations in the hyoid position and in the premaxilla that enhance suction feeding. These adaptations were related to the amount of items requiring suction. Comparing across three sympatric pairs of species, in each case different diets were reflected in differences in anatomy.